Round 5: Fish

Dmitri Fish is a Teen. His sister Dzika is a Child.

* * *

Dzika made sure to do what she knew her grandmother would have expected from her. She continued to hone her artistic skills, and when she wasn’t at her art table, she was spending every spare minute studying. She didn’t even find it difficult to maintain straight A’s these days.

But all her work didn’t make the loss hurt any less.

Dmitri was trying his best, she knew, but he just didn’t have as much time for her now that he had to divide his time between his part-time job and keeping his grades up so the two of them wouldn’t be separated. More often than not, Dzika was alone.

Even after her parents had died, she hadn’t been alone like this.

Her friendship with the Anatole triplets – especially the sensitive Arden, who understood her passion for art – helped keep her going. Finally, for the first time since Winter Li had gotten weird on her, she felt like she really had real friends. Sometimes the age difference between her and the triplets became painfully obvious, but most of the time it didn’t matter.

Dzika was good at bouncing back. So was Dmitri. They always had been – it was part of what made them who they were. And slowly but surely, they were adjusting to the new pattern of their lives. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t hard.

Dmitri had been afraid that with his added responsibilities, his relationship with Izzy would have to fall by the wayside. But they quickly found that it meant too much to both of them to let that happen. Sometimes they had to go weeks without seeing each other outside of school, but that only made the times when they could get together that much better. Izzy was one of the bright spots in Dmitri’s life, a warm and comforting presence that kept him anchored when he felt like he couldn’t handle everything that was expected of him.

Dmitri and Dzika celebrated their next birthday together, with a white cake for Dzika and a chocolate cake for Dmitri. Neither of them wanted a big party. Dmitri invited Izzy over to celebrate, and Dzika invited Arden; that was all the company they needed.

Dmitri had expected everything to change once he blew out the candles on his cake. But being an adult didn’t really make him feel any different. If anything, it only made things easier. He could focus on work without having to juggle school at the same time, and he no longer needed to worry about losing custody of Dzika – and speaking of work, he could finally get a real job, instead of making do with the little money he could make painting houses after school and on the weekends.

His long-ago dream of opening a bar still lingered in his mind, but he knew it wasn’t really what he wanted anymore. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was he wanted – something in programming, maybe. Something that would keep his mind engaged while paying well enough to keep him and Dzika afloat. When he saw that the space program was looking for a technician, he jumped on the opportunity. That would be more than enough mental challenge for him, plus he would know he was doing something to help the world, even in a small way, at the same time.

His only regret was that he couldn’t call Liss and tell her about it. He knew she would love the idea of him helping people get into space. He could even see the little finger-antennae she would waggle over her head as she joked about aliens.

But he invited Izzy over and told her, and her congratulations felt better to him than any jokes Liss might have made.

Meanwhile, Dzika was discovering that what passed for artistic talent as a child didn’t look nearly as good now that she was older.

Dmitri reassured her that her paintings were actually very good compared to what most people her age could do, but that wasn’t much consolation coming from someone who didn’t know anything about art.

Dzika was also finding out that Dmitri hadn’t struggled so much more than her in school because he was lazier than her or not as smart, like she used to assume. High school was just harder than elementary school – a lot harder. For the first time in years, her straight-A average was slipping away from her. While Dmitri was grateful for the opportunities that getting older provided, Dzika just wished she could go back to the way things were.